Little white lies
by Linneagb
Summary: *Re- written version of my earlier story the orphan* The families meet a mysterious girl when eating at a new restaurant in town. She takes some photos of them, gives them, but has disappeared before anyone has had the chance to figure out who she is. Not too long later they meet her again. And for longer this time. But who is she actually? And where on earth does she come from?
1. Who are you?

**So. Here comes finally the first chapter of the re- written version of my earlier story 'the orphan' this one is (As you can see) called little white lies, and have got some similarities and some differences from the original story. The OC's have got celebrity look alike's and the girl in this chapter is portrayed by Sabrina Carpenter.**

 **Claire POV**

"Luke, sit down and eat your food."

My son Luke was standing up with a straw and a napkin. Breaking small pieces of the napkin and blowing them out of the straw to hit and try to catch the attention of a blonde- haired girl that sat by the wall with a camera and took pictures a bit now and then of different people close to her in the restaurant.

"Luke! Sit down!"

At last my demanding got my teenage son to sit down and put that straw and the napkin on either side of his plate before he grabbed his fork and started eating. And while my dad had ordered two major bowls of different pastas for us all to share of different kinds. I could spot Luke longingly look towards Joe and Lily's children's portions with plain pasta and bacon.

For a moment I was so concentrated and somewhat angered by Luke not being happy with what he got I didn't notice the blonde- haired girl had moved from her spot on a bench by the wall and now stood by the table and shot one photo after the other. I noticed it was an instant camera because after shooting them she'd wait a while, and then pick out the photo from a printer in the camera before she stuffed it in her bag. A flowery- somewhat ugly thing if you asked me about it.

"Excuse me?" I actually didn't notice the girl stood right by us until dad turned to her and started talking. "But who are you? And why are you photographing us?" The blonde- haired girl didn't answer. But she pulled up the photographs from her bag. Threw them on the table by us and walked away. Crossed between the tables, and then walked outside and out of our sight.

"Who was that?"

Lily seemed to be the only one who took the chance to ask what we all wondered about out loud. And while we only could continue wondering one after one of us Dunphy- Pritchett- Delgado- Tucker's bent our necks upwards looking from our food to the point where we had last seen that blonde haired girl, and barely even noticed the waiter who came over to us.

"That girl have been coming over here a while every day for the last two weeks- since our Italian restaurant opened. She sits by the wall for a bit, goes over and take some photographs. Leaves them the photos she's taken. And then gets lost again, before she comes back the next day and does the same procedure again. No one have been able to get her name or the reason why she's here."

Some shrugs were shared between us by our table and Phil reached for the photos to check them out while we others returned to our plates and food. And when everybody had looked through the photos- no one was really interested in what they showed so we were on our way to keep them when Cam suddenly stated to have a feeling that we should keep them and stuffed them into his pocket while we were leaving the restaurant.

"Hey." A girl that seemed weirdly familiar, even though I couldn't quite place her walked up to us. "I'm doing a bit of research about the meals in this restaurant and first of all what is this?" She pointed to the boxes we had gotten to bring the food we couldn't eat. "And second of all. What do you have to say about the food here?"

"Well…" Dad seemed unsure about it but he started anyway and pointed to the respective boxes. "That's pasta with salmon pesto and those are pasta with chicken and mushrooms and…" He didn't have the time to say anything else. The girl grabbed one of the boxes with salmon pasta and quickly turned around to run in the other direction from us. Phil ran after her before any of us had the time to stop her and not until I could see the blonde hair that she'd put up in a ponytail flying after her and the colorful sneakers I realized this was the same girl as had been taking the photos inside the restaurant.

"PHIL" I shouted after and thanked God this was a restaurant put in our neighborhood and not around town- the three people who were looking at us weirdly was good enough. "PHIL IT'S OKAY. LET HER HAVE IT. PHIL…"

Several ones of us, I wasn't too sure who screamed when a car turned up from nowhere and for a split second we were all sure that it would hit the girl. Whoever she was. But the driver must have been standing on his brakes because the car stopped, in the very last second because it hit the box with pasta out of the girl's hands and sent it across the road. While the girl seemed somewhat unharmed and looked around and then ran off again before Phil could catch and stop her.

"Who is that?" Once again Lily was the only one who actually opened her mouth to ask the question out loud. "Doesn't she know that you're not supposed to run right out in the road like that without looking to both the right and to the left?"

Nobody answered, and Phil came limping back to us. God knows what muscle he had sprained from running after her like that. And the rest of the way back to our house where both dad and Gloria and Cam and Mitchell had left their cars, I had to support him more and more. But still, no one said a word. But it wasn't hard to guess what was circling in everybody's minds.

 _Who on earth was that girl?_

 **Mitchell POV**

During the afternoon and the evening I mostly let go of the girl we had seen outside the restaurant. I realized that we probably would never meet her again anyway. And worrying or wondering wouldn't change anything so I let it go. Cam was another story though, and he barely talked anything during the whole few hours from when we arrived back at our house and until we went out on a walk late at night while Alex had come over for the night and was watching Lily we walked through the blocks and actually. We didn't say much now either. At least not before…

"Mitchell. Look!"

I looked up from the sidewalk I'd been staring down into the last hundred meters and to where my husband pointed. And almost before I saw where he pointed. I could see in the light of the sun going down, on a swing on a playground. A person sat, and even with her dark form in front of the light sunset. We could both see it was the girl from earlier. And I just stopped in loss of thoughts about what to do.

"Why are you stopping Mitchell?" Cameron almost whispered, more wheezed. "We've got to go and talk to her. And find out who she is and why she did what she did." I still didn't move. I wasn't so certain about this. But when Cam just shook his head at me and trod over to her, I did nothing else then just watched. Even though for a moment, I was going to go over to them both and hear what they were talking about. Because I could see the girl trying to get away, and Cameron's lips moving.

And so she stayed, and I could see her lips moving. And for every times their lips were moving I would- even though I probably wouldn't admit it. But when Cameron shouted for me I was really relieved I'd finally know what they were talking about.

 **Girl POV**

I wasn't sure about where I was, or how far away from home here was. I didn't even know how long I had been gone from my parents, brothers and sisters because I had lost track of days. But the last week or so, Christmas lights and ornaments had started turning up. By the roads, by houses and in stores. So I guess I must have been gone for a while. And I must be far away from home, anywhere I knew snow would fall at least a month or so before Christmas. And here it was still warm enough to go in T shirt at daytime.

Even though all of the so very long roads and ways I had been at, had sort of made me forget about what day I even left. And sort of made me forget about how long I had gone, or what way I had gone.

And soon I'd probably forget my name, my family and everything, forget my mum, my dad, my brothers and my sisters just like they should have forgotten about me by now. I didn't fit in with them anyway.

The two men seemed weirdly familiar when I saw them coming up the road and the sound of their voices woke me up from my dreams. I guess they were two of all of the people I had been shooting pictures of for the last few weeks… Or months, or years. I had kind of lost track of date and everything I knew was that I was oh my God so far away from home!

When the large man pointed towards me I gripped around the chain that was hanging the swing I sat on, ready to get up and run. Like so many times before. But I needed to wait and see what was going to happen. Even though, when the large man walked away from the red- haired one and came towards me the only thing that kept me from running, was a weird feeling in my body and mind that I shouldn't.

"Hey sweetie." When the large man came close enough to speak to me I jumped onto my feet and set off to run away from him. "No, no. Don't run. I'm not going to hurt you." Something made me stop and I didn't know what. But what I knew was that my stomach was roaring for food, my mouth and throat was dry from the dehydration since I hadn't had a drink in God knows how long. And my head was pounding while the rest of my body ached with every move I made.

"Who are you?" I asked and tried to hide the trembling in my voice. "What do you want with me?"

"My name is Cam- Cam Tucker."

Oh really. Did he think that knowing his name would help either me or him in this? Whatever he was trying to do, it wasn't going to help. He wasn't going to make anything better. Just give me two minutes and I'd be out of this too.

"What's your name sweetie?"

 _Sweetie?_

 _Come on sweetie. You want to do this. I know you want to. And if you still don't then I'll make you want to._

"Get away from me." I ignored his questions and still held my vision on him in the corner of my eye while backing away and slightly glancing back towards the red—haired one down on the street. Glancing in that way didn't have me freeze though and slowly, slowly I still backed away from both Cam Tucker and the red- head.

"You don't have to be afraid, sweetie."

" _I'M NOT YOUR SWEETIE!"_

Every little piece of my whole body was as good as trembling now. And despite my loud memories and loud thoughts. Every little thing that came to mind that I could possibly say, I couldn't get one single word out of my mouth.

"What do you want with me?"

When a last, I could make more than a single moan come through my throat until my lips at last moved as I wanted them to. It was barely more than a whisper. And when Cam looked almost helpless and I could see his eyes moving from me, to his side, then back to me and to his other side while I tried not to care about the headache that was pounding beneath my skull.

"MITCHELL"

The sharp tone in Cam's tone when he shouted for the red head- obviously named Mitchell caused a flash of pain to go through my head worse than ever and while I lifted my right foot to back another step I felt the ground move under me. It was almost as if I was back on that swing. And I would have thought that it was an earthquake. If it wasn't for the fact that Mitchell and Cam didn't seem to have noticed. And in front of me, both they and everything else seemed to be spinning as well.

I tried to turn, and back, tried to run. Just anything to get away from these two men, and whatever they wanted with me. But soon I was so dizzy I didn't even know up from down. And when I let myself be surrounded by oh so comforting and welcoming darkness. I didn't even know if I was falling or if I was flying.

 _I just knew that I was safer than what I could ever have been if I had stayed._

 **So, the whole family have met this girl briefly. But doesn't know who she is since she ignores them when they ask for her name. She takes pictures. But they don't seem very interesting and she seems to turn up a bit here and there. It's almost Christmas and the girl herself doesn't know when or where she is, except that it's probably nearing Christmas. And if it's nearing Christmas, then she's got to be far away from home- since at home, there would have been snow by now.**

 **Random fact**

As it says in the summary. This is the re- writing of a story I had here before called 'the orphan' however, it does have both differences and similarities with the original story. And it took me like a hundred years to start this re- writing after I took 'the orphan' down.


	2. How are you?

**Thanks to Wall with a fez for reviewing.**

 **The girl's celebrity look alike is changed to Kia Pegg.**

 **Girl's pov**

For the first time in God knows how long, as I was waking up I felt that I was lying on something soft. Like a mattress or a sofa. Or just some cushions- after all of this time on the streets I wasn't picky. However, it would have to be a dream.

I pressed my eyes closed, I didn't want this soft and warm, the blanket over me and the pillow under my head to go away. And if I let myself wake up then it would all be gone.

But I could feel my head pounding too, and my back aching. And my neck, along with the rest of my body. Could you feel pain in dreams? And if this was a dream. How could I feel the soft beneath me? I opened one of my left eye just slightly and peaked a bit. No, this definitely wasn't a dream! Wait? This wasn't a dream!

I shot up into sitting position. The blanket fell of me and I was on my way to get up and run when a wave of nausea hit me and I sunk back towards the cushions of the sofa I was lying in. But despite that keeping my eyes open was making me dizzy and more nauseas I looked around in the room I laid in.

It seemed weirdly stylish, and despite the toys that laid a bit here and there it seemed a good bit tidier than what a house in which there was a kid at the age who used such toys would be. All the colors mixed well and there was a framed photo of the men I had seen earlier but couldn't remember the names of. Along with a young, Asian girl perhaps six years old.

"Here." Suddenly, the red haired man I had seen earlier stood right by the sofa I laid in, holding a glace of whatever, green beverage in front of me. "Don't worry." He mostly shoved the glance into my hand. "It's just ginger ale. We figured you fainted because you were dehydrated so start with a few, small sips of that." I stared down into the glass while the man walked around the living room and sat down in a big arm chair on the other side of a table that stood right by the sofa I sat in. And I followed every move he made until he smiled kind of nervously. "You know. I didn't poison that drink."

Oh, he didn't? Well, I had been through people poisoning my drink before. So why wouldn't he do it?

"Well, as you might remember I'm Mitchell." I nodded slightly and carefully sipped from the glass, hoping that I would feel if there was something in it that shouldn't be there. Maybe I shouldn't have even taken a sip. But I was so thirsty my mouth had gone all dry along with my throat. And I even felt that if I would have tried to speak it wouldn't sound like it usually did because of how dry it was.

The drink didn't help much, but I decided to wait a while. If they had drugged it for whatever reason. For something that they wanted to do but that I would forget. Just like he had done. But I kept all my senses turned on as much as I possibly could and I didn't feel anything for several minutes. Except that the dry feeling in my throat wasn't helped by those few sips. And not feeling anything I took the chance and took another few sips.

"Now aren't you glad I bought clothes for Lily even if it will take years before she can wear them Mitchell?" That other guy from last night came out into the living room and held up what looked like a pyjamas. "Here. You can have these. We looked through your bag a little. Don't worry, we didn't look at the photos. But we found that the clothes you had were dirty so we're going to clean them for you and you can have these to wear tonight."

I took the pyjamas quickly and looked at the large man without moving my head. What he had just said sounded kind of creepy. Like why would they look through my bag and what had they found and… But he had told me that they hadn't looked at the photos and I prayed to God he was telling the truth because if not…

"You can go into the bathroom over there." He pointed to a door. "If you want to shower you can do that to. The bottles on the bottom shelf are Lily's and you can use whatever you want of those." I frowned… But really… I needed a shower, I smelled like skunk and my hair was thick and greasy. But what if he wanted me to do it because he wanted to do something like Zeke had done?

The water didn't help much, but I decided to wait a while. If they had drugged it for whatever reason. For something that they wanted to do but that I would forget. Just like he had done. But I kept all my senses turned on as much as I possibly could and I didn't feel anything for several minutes. Except that the dry feeling in my throat wasn't helped by those few sips.

"What are you thinking about sweetie?" Cam sat down right by me and when I noticed he was trying to touch me I quickly pulled away. "You don't need to be afraid. We're only trying to help." I grabbed my bag and quickly moved into the bathroom. And for several minutes only stood and stared towards the shower as if I had forgotten what it's used for. Actually, it had been so long since I last showered it wouldn't surprise me if I really had forgotten it. But I still knew it perfectly well.

At last, after making sure that I had locked the door like twenty times I pulled my shoes off and put them along with my bag, hoodie and socks up on a shelf. Before I stepped into the shower, still dressed in the black sweatpants with grey and white print reading 'dance' and the white T shirt with the text 'world's most big sister'

Actually, right now that T shirt was more grey and black than white with dirt. And as I put the water on running the water had turned grey before it reached the plumbing from my skin, hair and clothes. Although. Only the water running over my head, even though it was of a normal temperature had me shivering. And at last I had to step out, pull off the sweatpants and use the towel before I pulled on the pyjamas, which was just a tiny bit too tight of my taste and I pulled the hoodie around my waste as well.

Just as I came out from the bathroom putting my wet clothes into a plastic bag I had been carrying I could see the two men putting some sheets, a quilt and a bed pillow on the sofa that I had just stood up from and while all the time keeping a close eye on them two I knelt and put the bag with the wet clothes a bit away, but my bag just by the bed where I could hold onto it if they wanted me to lie down on that sofa. And I'd better do as I was told, even if it would mean they would take the quilt to hold me pressed down towards the cushions to do whatever they liked with me for a bit.

"How are you?" The one named Cam asked. "Nice and clean after that shower?" I didn't reply. "Let me take those clothes." He grabbed the bag and I quickly backed away- what if he wanted to leave me with no clothes to wear if I even thought about running. "Don't worry sweetie. I just want to wash them to make sure you don't have to wear dirty clothes." He took the bag. "You look tired. You can sleep here on the sofa. I and Mitchell will leave now. Don't hesitate to shout or something if there's anything you need."

Cam and Mitchell left into a room right into the hallway and I wasn't so sure what I would believe. I wanted, and probably should have taken my bag and ran for what I was worth but after months on the run I was so tired my legs wouldn't carry me for longer than I could collapse towards the sheets. Where I then laid and tried to listen closely. Even though I was pretty sure that if they tried something. I wouldn't be able to stop them.

I didn't want to fall asleep, not here, not now. These men could want to do something to me, possibly things I could never imagine. But I was so tired and couldn't fight my eyes open anymore. But still, I fought for as long as I could. And all into the moment I sank down towards the cushions again, I tried to fight to stay away. Until I just couldn't anymore.

That night I didn't have that nightmare about being touched for the first time in God knows how long. In this nightmare there were no hands, no clear blue eyes, no pale skin touching mine, and no fear that came from being too afraid to say no. The fear of knowing no one would believe me, no one would know because I couldn't tell them. I hadn't said no anyway.

But the feeling of that something like this had happened before stayed. Because I had been at this road. I had taken the bus into somewhere in the middle of nowhere with all the money I had. Only to get away, and I had walked along that road towards those snowy mountains for real. Only to get away, as far as possible. In reality the road had been icy, there had been snow on both sides. It had been cold, now I could see the ice and the snow. But it wasn't cold.

But that didn't stop the feeling of that I needed to get away. As far as possible as fast as possible. But now, the cold was switched to voices. My brothers' voices. My sisters' and my parents' calling out for me. Wondering where on earth I was, but I just kept on walking without answering. II just needed to keep on walking.

"What were you even thinking Mitch?" I woke up from hearing a woman's voice speaking and the sunlight hitting my eyes. "Just picking up a kid from the street like that? Who knows who she is?" I heard that she was talking about me so I crawled down from the sofa and tip- toed towards the door where a lot more people than what had been here last night stood outside in the driveway. And I hid behind a boy with brown, curly hair.

"Mum" The boy had seen me.

"Hold on Luke. Who on earth knows where she's been…"

"Mum." One of the girls standing there had seen me as well. She must have been a year or two older than me. And had dark hair and glasses.

"Not now Alex… And who knows where she comes from and who she is."

"Mum." Another girl had noticed me. She must have been another few years older and was for sure beautiful.

"Not now Haley."

"MUM." All three of the kids went now and the blonde- haired woman spun around. I stepped in behind the door, but she and everybody else could see me. Then and now. The blonde haired woman grimaced slightly. But before she had had the time to say anything a tall, dark- haired man took over while she just stood opening and closing her mouth like a fish.

"Yello miss." He told me in a weird accent without putting a name after it. "Well… I guess I could introduce us. This." He put an arm around the blonde woman's shoulders. "Is my wife Claire Dunphy, I'm Phil. And these are our children Haley, Alex and Luke. He pointed to each of the people while saying their names. "Mitchell and Cam you've already met and that is their daughter Lily… Mitchell is Claire's brother and that old man behind me is their dad Jay. He's also dad of the little boy, he's Joe. Then it's his wife Gloria and stepson Manny… And of course, Stella the dog. And who may you be?"

I looked from each and every one of them trying to memorize their names. I pulled out on it not to have to say anything yet. But I had a thing for remembering names and already after going through them twice while I tried to think of something to call myself I had them all. But still pulled out on it for as long as I could.

"Claire? Phil? Haley? Alex? Luke? Mitchell? Cam? Lily? Jay? Joe? Gloria? Manny? And Stella?" The elder man started clapping his hands slowly, as if he was doing it ironically. "My name is Ev…. I mean my name is Stella too. Stella Kayler." I could see the elder man frowning at me. And I desperately tried to find something to say that would scratch over my lie and how I almost had said my real name. "I think I'd better get out of this pyjamas." Without another word I flew back into the house, grabbed my bag and walked into the bathroom to get changed.

I tried to reach up to the bathroom window and open it. But soon realized that it would be too little to get my bag through. And even less big enough for me to get through. So soon I changed my plan that maybe I could sneak out of the bathroom, then out of the house without anyone noticing. However, my plan didn't quite work out.

"O…kay." When I came out of the bathroom again all of the adults that had been standing outside the house earlier- including Joe were standing in half a circle with their arms crossed over their chests or other such ways to express what they were feeling. "Whatever it is I didn't do it!" Jay- who stood right in front of me stared me down and I backed as long as I could before I tried to make a run for it.

"Oh no you don't." Before I'd even had the chance someone had pushed me backwards again and I fell and accidentally pushed my bag away. It opened, and photos of a kind I didn't want people to see spread across the floor. Most of them towards Joe and before I'd had the time to stop him he had picked one up. Probably, with my luck he had picked up the worst of them all.

"Mum." He reached up towards Gloria, and whispered into her ear just so loud everyone could hear it while showing her the photo he had picked out. "Why is she naked?"

I felt myself go bright red and I looked into the floor not to have to meet any of the ways they were looking at me. This was what I had been afraid of would happen. And after all of my running, all of my fighting. And all of the long ways I had taken it was all over. It would be all over wouldn't it? I had a feeling these people wouldn't let me be until they had the truth- the whole truth.

"Ehrm…" I tried to cover it up with talking about the first thing that came to mind. "…Do you guys like hot chocolate? I like hot chocolate. Is there any place that serves hot chocolate around here? A café or something? I'd really like one. It's on me." I ignored the fact that I had no money and tried to show that I was going towards the door. But couldn't get through their wall of people. "Do you?"

"What's your name?"

"How old are you?"

"How did you even get here?"

"Where are you from?"

Gloria, Joe, Jay and Phil had just asked their questions and I sighed and looked around without knowing where to start, or if I even should start.

"So what is your name? How old are you? How did you get here?" I looked around at Claire's questions. All of those adults still stood there and the children had joined too. Oh well, children and children. Most of them looked older than me. And while I knew I had heard and understood Claire's question right. It must have taken me at least ten seconds to quietly answer, only one of the questions.

"Evelyn Threataway."

 **Random fact**

The thing with Stella/ Evelyn having a very dry throat was actually based on reality. Without further explanation. It's based on how it felt for me after surgery. And let's just say it- a cup of water didn't help and five, six hours later my voice was still hoarse.


	3. Where are you?

"How old are you?"

"Twelve."

"How did you get here?"

"Bus, train, walking."

"Where are you from?"

"Jackson, Wyoming."

"Why are you here?"

I hadn't even minded- or noticed who had asked all of the questions, just answered all of them until that very last one of them… What was I supposed to answer anyway? Because my neighbor was a jerk? Because all of the people, except for me, my family or that neighbor were black? Because I knew it would get out all over town?

"I'm not sure where to start."

"Start from the beginning." This time it was Jay. "And tell us- why are you here?"

"Because…" I sighed. Then before I could stop myself I told them… well… I didn't like to say it but pretty much everything. "Look! The block I live on have got ten houses, me and my family, the guy in the house next to ours and then only black people. I heard some racist say once that that road should be the most crime- ridden one in the whole town. But it's probably the least since well, six of those houses are old couples that… they're just like grandparents and since… well long story short. I and my sisters and brothers haven't got grandparents so screw skin color. And the only one I know on the whole street is the only white person except for my family and..."

"And what?"

"And he… he was babysitting my sisters and brothers and when they had fallen asleep I was in my room… I always sit on my bed with reading and stuff and he came in and he… he started… And then… he was babysitting them again two weeks later and I… I couldn't tell anyone- my parents loves the guy but I didn't know what to do so… I just ran."

By now I was shaking from head to toe. Uncontrollably and I heard Gloria shout something about fainting. But I didn't. I just span around and stumbled back into the bathroom, locked the door and sunk down onto the floor.

I put my arms over my head, sobbing my heart out and still shaking from head to toe. I could barely breathe and in my head the flashbacks had gotten worse than ever. In front of me I could see Zeke's evil smirk, I could feel his hands touching me and the fear and how degrading it felt when he ripped my pyjama bottoms off when I wouldn't do it myself.

Everything except for me and that bathroom floor seemed to be gone for a few minutes. Every sound was gone. So were Zeke, my family and everybody else in this house. Everybody in the whole world and everything as well seemed all gone… well, that was until I saw someone standing right by me and the person kneeled by me.

"Hey." Claire sunk down onto the floor next to me and I tried to pull away. "It's okay. It's okay. Just breathe." She reached out her hand, took mine and rubbed it with her thumb. "Hey… breathe with me, okay?" She started taking deep breaths in and out and I tried my best but ended up coughing loudly and making it even harder to breathe than it had been three seconds before. "It's okay, it's okay."

"Mum and dad were like fifteen and sixteen when they had me." I started from the very beginning. "I ruined their whole life. Their parents threw them out and they had to take care of me and then they had one pair of twins and then the others and I couldn't babysit all the times they wanted me to. If I had been better this would have never happened. But I couldn't tell them what Zeke did because they just love him and he always plays with all of my siblings and helps them with everything around the house and they're not like always tired all the time or so anymore… If I tell them about this I'll just destroy their lives all over again."

I had started and then not been able to stop until I was finished. While doing it I had somewhat breathed deeply to be able to continue. But as soon as I was done my breathing went into hyperventilation again and I couldn't stop it this time around.

"Hey, sch, sch, sch. It's okay sweetie. It's okay just breathe." Claire comforted again and slowly and carefully embraced me. "Is it okay if I do this?" I nodded- women wasn't a problem and she just held me like that, rubbing my back and gently shushing for several minutes until I could finally breathe again.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't say you're sorry. It's not your fault."

After what felt like ages, but at the same time only a little while that would have made so much sense I pulled away and sat up on my own. Then used my shirt to wipe the tears and snot from my face- probably forgetting there was a mum right by me.

"Don't do that." She reached up to grab a roll of paper that stood on the edge of the tub. "Here." I took the piece of paper she left me but only started to rip it into small pieces in between my hands. "And… Evelyn. You did not destroy anybody's life. There is nothing your parents want more than you. You, you, you and you." I nodded slightly. "And if someone's hurting you then they don't any circumstances want you to keep it secret because they want you, and they want you to feel good. Okay?" I nodded at her question. "So… are you going to run anymore after this?"

"Will you help me with calling up my family again? Not to let them track me down I sort of left my own cellphone at the kitchen table at home." Claire sighed and rolled her eyes. "I know, I'm sorry."

Claire didn't answer my second apology in like three minutes and then we left the bathroom. She told Mitchell something and while I told him mum's cellphone number Mitchell dialed it and shaking from head to toe I listened to the speakers until the phone clicked and mum answered.

"Jessica Threataway."

"Hello Mrs. Threataway… My name is Mitchell Pritchett and I… Ehrm… It would probably be best if you could walk into a room where you could sit down by yourself. I'm going to tell you why just yet but it's important. Okay so you want to... yes of course I understand but. Then could you put it on speaker. Great… Have you? Awesome. I'm going to hand the phone over to somebody else now."

Mitchell handed the phone to me but my hands were shaking too much I couldn't hold it so he put on the speaker and laid it on the kitchen bench right in front of me.

"Hello?" Mum's voice sounded almost annoyed in the speaker. "Hello? Is there anyone there… Mr. Pritchett…"

"Mum"

Before I had the time to hesitate I had almost whimpered into the phone hoping that it would at least be loud enough for her to hear that it was me. And it must have been because there suddenly was a bang in the speakers that sounded like she had dropped the phone. And then six different voices calling out for me.

"Eve?"

"Evie?"

"Lyn?"

"Evie?"

"Evelyn."

The last voice was my dad's. After four young and just excited voices from my younger siblings who wouldn't have understood anything of what was going on. And then dad- who obviously was sounding more worried and stressed than anything.

"Evelyn." Dad's voice sounded again and he sounded more stressed for every sound. "Where have you been? Where are you?"

I looked up to the others and they told mum through the phone where we were and they spoke back and forth to check what plane my family would have to take to come here as fast as possible and what address we were on and it felt like ages before the phone was passed back to me for me to talk to my family again.

"Evelyn?"

Dad's voice was shaking more than ever before and I had to admit I had never heard it like that before and this time was once too much.

"Yes daddy?"

"We'll be right there… I love you… we love you so you better stay right where you are."

"I love you too and… and I will."

The phone silent and started beeping once dad had hung up and Mitchell hung up in his end. And then silence fell over the kitchen and saying anything would be one word too much so… what happened just… happened.

Suddenly everyone- including me started packing up their stuff. I wasn't so sure why but I thought I heard something about keeping everybody close. And then suddenly everybody were heading off to Jay's house- Gloria, Manny and Joe's too of course but… Actually I couldn't get much of anything and I just went along. On the condition that I was riding in the same car as Alex as it felt like the least chance that someone would want to do something to me there.

Then there was pizza for lunch, Chinese food for dinner and I don't know how many movies. I was in such euphoria knowing that I would finally get to meet my family in the first time in so very long. Without having Zeke there as well. Without feeling scared to death about what to happen I wasn't so sure what was going on until I laid in the bed alone in the room they had told me was Lily's when she was here and Lily was angry because out of respect to me after everything I'd been through there I'd be left by myself with the door locked and Claire was just saying goodnight when I realized what I really wanted.

"Actually." I looked up and sat up supporting towards my eyebrows. "It would be okay if you, Alex and Lily slept in here too. I mean after all. This used to be Lily's room anyway. I suppose she would kind of hate me forever if she didn't get to sleep in this bed." Claire let hear a short chuckle, but nodded and mumbled something about that she'd get the things from the living room and I crawled out of the bed and waited for her to come back so Lily could have hers.

"Lily. Where are you? Alex? Where are you?"

I heard Claire calling out for the girls and smiled slightly. Then couldn't help but to smile even bigger when I could see Lily coming running into the room and jumped up into her bed while Claire came in too and started placing out blow- up- mattresses for herself, me and Alex.

I remembered I had read in a poem for I don't know how long ago 'and if you can't find your smile I have one you can borrow'. It was a very beautiful poem. And for the first time in so very long, it felt like what it was giving shine off was true- no pain would last forever. And even though there was still quite a few things that needed to be fixed around all of this. For the first time, I didn't need to wonder like in the poem search for my smile.

Because I knew exactly where it was.

In fact, I didn't even need to wonder about where I was.

 **Evelyn is portrayed by Kia Pegg, her younger sisters are portrayed by Nelly and Gwen Currant, her younger brothers by Jack and Joey Bobo. Her parents are portrayed by Ryan Sweeting and Kaley Cuoco- Sweeting. And at last Zeke is portrayed by (Swedish!) Kåre Hedebrant.**

 **Random fact**

If anything in Evelyn's story with the neighborhood of is racist I am very sorry. It was designed to put racists in a bad picture- not black people. Or Asians or green or purple or yellow people. You get what I mean- I don't care if you're black, glow in the dark or are freaking green. I don't care if you believe in God or freaking Santa Claus or the tooth fairy. What I do care about and have a problem with- is people who just take for granted that people of a certain skin color or culture or religion or whatever are supposed to be in a certain way. So? Have we got that part sorted? And everybody understands I'm not a racist? Great!


	4. I love you

**So. Here we are with the last chapter. But first I'd like to say a few words.**

 **As some of you may or may not know 2015 have been a really rough year for me. Now when there's only a couple of things left I look back on everything that happened and can't believe I got through everything.**

 **But I did get through everything. But certainly not on my own. During these times I have learnt who will be there and who to keep close. I will be forever grateful for each and every one who has been there. But as you also may know, people aren't it all…**

 **Fanfiction has always been there for me and so have all of you. Even if it was just a short review or a favorite mark or another follower you have all helped me to stand up yet another day. Taken yet another step and I just wanted to take this last A/N for this story to tell you how grateful I am.**

 **So to you, yes, you who's reading this. Thank you, from the very bottom of my heart. Thank you.**

From the moment I had spoken to my family it took three days to get train tickets (for some reason they couldn't ride with plane) and wait and get here. And for some reason I didn't speak to them on the phone during the traveling time.

I knew that if I would call them up one more time than what I already have I wouldn't have been able to hang up until I had them right in front of me. And I didn't want to leave neither Jay nor anybody else with those phone bills. So for every time I just wanted to grab one of the family's phones. I held my hands sternly held in my pockets with hard grips around the fabric until the strongest urge was gone.

Actually, those three days were filled with different ways for the others to help me with making the time move forward. I needed to get caught up in my school work because even though I didn't have any papers with anything I needed to do Alex helped me to understand and make work that would be right for my grade and classes. The next moment Luke and Phil were making me a part of whatever experiments and those next ones we spent one evening by the TV by some old cowboy movie from God knows what decade with burgers and French fries. While I kept on walking to the hallway and back to see if anyone would arrive yet.

"Evelyn." Gloria almost moaned at last. "Sit down, you'll hear it when they come through the door. Nothing will go faster by you…"

A sudden noise from the porch's direction caught my attention and at first I couldn't even move. Then, suddenly when the door flew open and a blonde- haired woman I easily recognized came inside and short of breath looked around I flew onto my feet.

"Mum." I rushed to her side but before I had had the chance to hug her tight before she grabbed me around the arms and stopped me. I hesitated, but didn't have the chance to say anything before mum abruptly started.

"Where have you been?" Mum's voice sounded angry and there was a fire burning in her eyes I'd never seen before. "Do you have any idea of how worried I've been?"

I took a step back while mum let her hands fall again and the fire in her eyes was put out of the tears rising in her eyes. I wasn't so sure what to answer. I hadn't wanted to make her worry. Neither had I wanted to make her cry nor no matter how selfish that would have made me again. I didn't want her to be angry with me.

But honestly I didn't have time for mum anymore when dad who had helped my younger twin brothers out of the car came rushing and quickly lifted me up while hugging me tight. He was exclaiming a few muffled sounds that I didn't recognize but that sounded awfully much like sobs.

I had never heard dad cry before, and hearing it made me feel worse than ever. For a moment I felt like getting out of his grip and run again. But I fought against those thoughts and stayed until dad pulled away from me and with tear stained cheeks he shakily spoke to me face to face for the first time in what felt like a hundred years.

"Evie… And now tell me the truth." He took a deep, shaky breath. "Why?"

"I…I… What's he doing here?" I hadn't noticed at first but a boy I easily recognized had come through the door too. And while I could tell he pretended to just smile to the others. I could see the evil smirk in his expression and when he took a step towards me to follow the other's embrace I took a step back and fizzled at him.

"You stay away from me!"

"Evie." Dad scolded. "Don't be… hey. What's up?"

"Mr. Threataway." Cam said softly. He had taken a few steps forward and the look on his face must have caught dad's eye. "I'm sorry. But…"

"Hey." Phil stood up and seemed to brainstorm. "Lily, Joe, twins and twins. Why don't you come with me and buy some cake and ice cream so we can celebrate a bit. This feels like the right time for a celebration and I'm going to need some help with choosing the right kinds."

"But what?" Dad asked as soon as the younger kids were out the door. "But what? What's Zeke's part in all of this?" Cam looked to me and I just nodded back- he would probably know something better to say than whatever I could come up with by the thoughts spinning in my head. "What's going on?"

"I'm afraid…" Cam started. "…I'm afraid Mr… Zeke have done something terrible to your daughter. That caused her to run away. Not from you, but from him."

"You filthy little rat." Mum spat before anyone else could have had the chance to say anything. "You did it to me. I could have lived with that! But you did it to my daughter? My twelve year old? And then stand there with us and help us look for her when you must have known you were the reason… You…"

"WHAT is going on?" Dad seemed frustrated and confused. "What…" Mum whispered something I couldn't hear into his ear and when he looked back to Zeke his eyes had gone from their usual brown to complete black. "You bastard!" Dad lifted Zeke up in the shirt and pressed him up against the wall. "If I ever see you anywhere close to my wife, or my children again. I will kill you. Do you understand?" Zeke had to fight to breathe with the way dad held him. "Do you understand?"

"Y- yes." Zeke whimpered. But his so very blue eyes didn't change and still had the look in them as if he was better than anybody else. "Yes sir."

I didn't think dad hadn't spotted the look in Zeke's eyes. He was still holding Zeke still pressed up against the wall with dad's face only centimeters away. Nobody moved for several seconds and the only thing heard was dad's angry, almost wheezing breaths. And Zeke still fighting to breathe. Nobody moved.

There was a scream of surprise heard from Haley when dad suddenly moved and punched Zeke right over the nose. A loud crack was heard as it broke and blood scattered over the blonde's face. Dad didn't care though, and neither did any of us others when dad let go of Zeke. Zeke stumbled by falling so fast, but before he had the time to stumble of his feet dad grabbed his shirta gain, stomped over the floor and opened the door.

"And don't you ever let me see you again."

Dad had thrown the younger man out the door and slammed it after him. For a few seconds after the door had closed so loudly my ears were ringing everything we could still hear was dad's angry panting. Which wasn't interrupted before mum sniveled and dad turned towards her.

"I'm sorry." Dad laid an arm around her neck and pulled her close to his chest. "I'm sorry I ever let him… I'm so sorry."

Mum let hear a few, almost all silent sobs. But that was the last thing I heard before all my senses just shut off and I backed a few steps and then sunk down onto the floor breathing heavily. I didn't notice my own breathing pace though. I didn't notice anything for God knows how long until dad had kneeled right by me and laid his arms around my shoulders in his warm embrace.

"I'm sorry." He almost whispered. "Oh my little princess… I'm sorry I let him do that to you."

To hear the silly little nickname dad had had for me since I was like five and mum had been wanting to read a little princess for me had me smiling. Remembering how dad had thought I was still too young for that kind of books and I stated pouting that then he could at least call me a little princess. I had thought he would do it until I had been old enough to read it myself- but of course, he wouldn't ever do that.

"It's not your fault."

I had wanted to tell him that right away but it took my brain a moment to find the right words and my throat and mouth to get them out in the right way and the right order. And it was for sure what I thought- how would this be his fault anyway? Maybe we should have told right away… whether it had been me or mum doing that.

Dad and I sat like that for a long while, his arms around me in his warm embrace. The one that I suddenly couldn't understand how I had survived without it for all the while. And while I wondered about that I didn't understand how I had survived without my family at all. Or my home- or everything I loved!

"You know guys." I said without any further notice when I looked up God knows how long later and saw that I hadn't heard it when Phil and the young kids had come back with God knows how many boxes of ice cream and cake. "I love you…" I didn't want to wait a second longer with saying it. "I love you mum, I love you dad. I love you Immie and I love you Josie. I love you Auggie and I love you Nick. And that is so true so whatever happens don't you ever forget it and…" I turned to the others. "Thank you… After everything you did for me too… I love you too."

"Where's Zeke?" Augustus asked almost at the same moment I had stopped talking not giving anyone a chance to reply. "Why isn't he here anymore?"

"Auggie." Mum kneeled right by my twin brothers. "When Zeke was at our house he did something very terrible to both me and to Evie okay? So we're not going to meet him again. And if he shows up at ours then you tell us. Okay? Because then we need to make him leave."

"But he was nice to us…" Nicholas stated.

"Yeah." Augustus continued his twin's sentence. "He gave us presents. Really cool presents."

"Well… sometimes people do that to hide that they're doing something really bad. And you'd rather want me and Evie to be alright than those presents right?" Augustus nodded yes, Nicholas hesitated a bit. "Well… I know you do too Nick. Come here." Mum held out her arms and hugged either twin with either arm. "I love you guys. The both of you… all the way to the stars, a thousand laps around and all the way back. You know that right?"

"Mum…" Augustus panted.

"You don't need to break all of our ribs." Nicholas continued.

I smiled and shook my head briefly. Nick and Auggie had heard dad say exactly that when Josephine hugged him hard and now they said it every time someone hugged them both at the same time. And they were a brief reminding that even if I had been gone- Augustus, Nicholas, Imogen, Josephine, mum and dad were still all the same and we still loved each other to bits which was what was important. More important than anything, or everything put together.

I looked around and suddenly, for the first time in forever I just pulled for my breath. Long and deep while the calm, somewhat warm feeling spread all the way out into my fingertips. When I looked to mum there was no need for no words and she held out her arms while I hurried over to her and hugged her tightly. And the room fell all silent until we had let go and I pulled back when mum kept her hands on my arms.

"No more lies?!"

Mum's sentence was short. Still those short three words meant more than what I could have ever put in words. Despite I pulled a deep breath and waited in several seconds before I let my voice get heard and answered.

"No more lies! Not even little white ones"

It was silent and the atmosphere seemed somewhat tense for several seconds more even though I felt all calm and peaceful. No one said a word or even breathing out loud. And then Nicholas spoke and right away broke the tense feeling, the silence and the awkward silence with making us all laugh.

"…When are we gonna eat ice cream?"

From God knows where and some of Jay's money we managed to get plane tickets and were home already that evening. And after coming home and I barely had the time to get inside and drop my bag before I went out again without a word (everybody knew where I was going anyway) and walked fast the few hundreds of meters up to the stable hill just as the sun was going down painting the skies in orange and red. And in the middle of it all a light colored horse was standing half- sleeping on the grass.

"SAVIOUR." I shouted, climbing onto the wooden fence around the paddock. The fjord hoarse standing a bit away lifted his head and turned his ears to listen to me. "SAVIOUR. COME HERE BOY." He threw his head again and snorted before he came trotting over to me.

"Hey boy." I pushed away his mane and scratched his forehead. "Did you miss me huh? Did you? Well, guess what? That's okay, because now I'm back and I'm not ever leaving you again." I crawled up on the fence again and threw one leg over his back before I with the help of his mane pulled myself up.

I didn't even have a rein, and certainly not a saddle. And most certainly not riding gear, but with only me, those sneakers and jeans towards the back of my horse, and of course me and him. And right there, there were no more running. No more lies and no more worrying.

Because, hey- who on earth would be able to have that on the back of your horse slowly walking towards the sunset?

Not me at least!

 **So, that's it! That's the end. I hope you enjoyed the story and I hope**

 **Evelyn is portrayed by Kia Pegg. Imogen by Nelly Currant and Josephine by Gwen Currant, Nicholas and Augustus by Jack and Joey Bobo and Brian and Jessica by Ryan Sweeting and Kaley Cuoco- Sweeting. At last Zeke is portrayed by Kåre Hedebrant.**

 **Random fact**

That part about 'you don't need to break all of our ribs' is actually from a book. And I just couldn't help but use it. Even though in the book it was 'my ribs' not our. It was in a CD book I had from some horse-book-club. I don't remember what it was called sorry. But I can't wait until I get the chance to use it myself someday- hopefully! Haha.

 **Bye bye.**


End file.
